The Origin
A Craft Born in the Nawabi Court
نوابی دربار
In the 18th century, under the patronage of the Nawabs of Awadh, Lucknow became the beating heart of refinement — a city of poets, courtesans, mehfils and an unhurried elegance the world came to call tehzeeb.
It was here that chikankari — the delicate art of white-on-white shadow embroidery — flourished. Legend traces it to a traveller taught the craft by a Nawabi queen; history records generations of karigars perfecting its thirty-six distinct stitches in the bylanes of Old Lucknow.
Noor-e-Awadh is our love letter to that legacy. We work directly with the families who have carried these needles for centuries, bringing their work — unhurried, imperfect in the way only the handmade can be — to a new generation.
